Second Sheffield Comic Con '26

After February’s convention, Comic Con Sheffield returned to Ponds Forge for another day of celebs, stalls, talks and photo ops. This time, Red Dwarf’s The Cat – Danny John Jules – posed for photos. 

DJJ also played Baldy’s Lookout in prison movie Scum – the guy who lets Carlin (Ray Winstone in his breakout role) into the coal room to fight the number 2 guy. I would have liked to ask him about that but there was no Q+A for him. 

I’ll tell you who *did* do one, unsurprisingly... Boom-voiced actor 89-year-old Brian Blessed gave pretty much the same talk that he did in For the Love of Sci Fi back in 2019. 

Paul Chuckle of The Chuckle Brothers also made a guest appearance.

 

 A small but fun Creed Conventions event. 

Made a purchase

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner

 

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A year or so ago I was passing through Holmfirth in Yorkshire and stopped off for a browse in the many charity shops. I came across Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, by Paul M Sammon. 

A big, detailed, generous account, FN describes the conception of the idea of adapting the book – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K Dick. It then follows the process through planning, adapting the screenplay, casting, shooting, editing and finally marketing and re-releasing the film several years later. I’ve been dipping in an out of it since then. 

Blade Runner is a classic movie of the Cyberpunk genre: dark nights, glassy cityscapes, futuristic vehicles and black, edgy clothing. It’s mainly, though, remembered for its largely impervious, neo-noir plot: a detective assigned with hunting down and ‘retiring’ criminal targets who happen to be replicants – genetically engineered almost-humans created for off-world work. They escape and land on Earth, knowing their lifespan is short, with the intention of extending it. Rick Deckard – the titular ‘blade runner’ – is intent on making sure that doesn’t happen. 

It sounds simple enough, until Deckard becomes involved in a target and starts to doubt his own memories and existence. Could he be a replicant too? 

There’s a lot in the film that’s hinted at and not properly explained, which makes the film debatable – should a director spell out every idea in his film? Should elements be open to interpretation? Well, certain facets of BR – who’s a replicant, who’s not, the mystery conditions that blight different characters, and yes, what that unicorn is all about – it’s all explained as best as can be by contributors in the book. These include screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, director Ridley Scott and other contributors. 

Towards the end of the book – published in 1996 - rumours of a sequel swirl long before Blade Runner 2049 is written. The planned story is quite different to the film that arrived in cinemas in 2017. 

If you’re a fan of Blade Runner, it’s a valuable companion.

Last Day of this Machinist Diet.

I cannot wait for this ridiculous, painful fasting experiment to be over. Yes, it’s self-inflicted. Yes, I’ve lost *some* weight. But no, it has not been fun. More later. But at least Monday’s my rest day, so I’m not staggering about with a skipping rope trying to understand Twin Peaks, which has made up most of the time of the project. 

I’m on leave today to catch up with a ton of blogging. Expect also a write-up of Sheffield Comic Con yesterday with a certain British sci-fi celebrity, a sci-fi book review and a bar and restaurant review. 

Wednesday night: Manchester holds host to former White House Communications Director Anthony ‘The Mooch’ Scaramucci on his All the Wrong Moves book tour. Scaramucci famously lasted 10 days as Trump’s comms guy before being unceremoniously sacked, after which he turned on his former boss, speaking out against many of his policies. Tickets, including a copy of the book, are £40. As for the event, there’s definitely a Q+A. No word yet of if there are photo ops or signings with it. I’m still undecided. 

Thursday: Ryan Murphy’s latest Monster series drops on Netflix, this time covering Lizzie Borden, who I understand may or may not have hacked her parents to death in Massachusetts in 1892. Murphy’s previous Monster instalments have frequently been intriguing, violent and fun, but scattered and repetitive. 

There was a Lizzie movie that came out some years ago with Chloë Sevigny in the title role. I never got around to that. 

Saturday: retro entertainment day Nostalgic Oldham arrives in Parliament Square in the town centre, with classic cars, circus entertainers and the official unveiling of a huge community-created mural. I’m intrigued by the cars. 11am-4pm. 

Saturday night: Manchester Nightlife this time tries out the new Dahlia Stereo, the food and house music venue in The Northern Quarter. Last weekend saw their first Saturday Night, and the Insta story looks fantastic – great music, a real club atmos, and even branded t shirts are available. 8pm, Lever St.

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My Patience with Meetup People is at an All-Time Low.

Friday night: ran a meetup with Manchester Nightlife to Blinker, the new cocktail bar near Parsonage Gardens. Had 2 attendees listed. Got down there on time, waited. Nice bar. Good décor and atmos with funk music. Cocktails £12-13, mostly, although I wasn’t drinking. Got evacuated due to a suspected gas leak. 3 fire engines, an ambulance and an ambulance car later, and we were allowed back in. No apparent injuries.

Waited til 10. Nobody from Meetup showed. The 2 other attendees, 1 a regular, the other not a first timer but I hadn’t seen her in ages, neither got back to me. I really should block them both from the group. 

You might be asking… why do you do it? Why do you pay to run this group just to have to deal with a load of disorganised flakes, racists, homophobes, ablists and general social dunces? 

The answer is, I’m 44. Everyone else I know is married and settled. They don’t do anything any more. And I don’t want to go join ANOTHER dance group or writer’s group only to find there’s nobody there I click with either. And there are things I want to do in the city.

In other news, I discussed Weetabix with Paralympic tae kwon do champion Matt Bush.

Then I went to a Comic Con. More on that later.

Well, I’m still trying this Machinist Diet.

Nearly a month ago I embarked on this idiotic, exhausting and unproductive project: trying to eat the same food that Christian Bale ate for his skeletal performance in 2004’s The Machinist. 

Unfortunately, I have neither the willpower not the willingness to waste food, so throughout the month I’ve – on occasion – eaten only a can of tuna and an apple, as Bale reportedly did daily. But usually my sole meal has been something else – freezer food, soup (until it went off), or roast dinners at my mum’s weekly. The weight is not particularly dropping off. I started at 86.2kg. I was 79kg this morning. 78.1 yesterday morning. Considering how little I’m eating, and how much skipping I’ve done, I can’t understand how this weight is staying on me. I dunno if the 2 kilos of peanut buter I've mullered through have anything to do with it. 

On Tuesday, I’ll have been doing this Machinist Diet for a month. After that, I’m tempted to just fast it out until I hit 72.2kg.

Meet Red Dwarf's The Cat; Blinker Bar Meetup

Highlights of this coming week: 

Friday: Early meetup with Manchester Nightlife, this time to new Blinker bar which I hear is highly recommended. Friday night, right in the middle of the financial area off Fountain St. 9pm. 

Sunday: Sheffield Comic Con lands Sunday at Ponds Forge Sports Centre with Danny John Jules the guest attraction. DJJ played The Cat in Brit SF comedy Red Dwarf, a well-groomed, slick talking space traveller who evolved to a man-like creature after years of evolution from a pet feline stuck on a spacecraft for millennia. The actor was also Baldy’s Lookout in Scum – the guy who lets Carlin into the coal room to fight the number 2 guy. I just learned that. There are still tickets.

There’s a certain breast – related theme to this week's post.

Blake Blossom weighed in on Popbitch’s ‘baboon vs badger’ conundrum. I asked. 

 

 

I went to support the Manchester Boob Walk on Saturday, to help document the raising of awareness of Breast Cancer, and as part of this pharma experiment. If you read to the end, you’ll see I bailed on them to try and see someone famous, who is in Manchester at the time of writing. 

Who? Angela White, one of the most prolific porn stars of the last decade, is in the UK and in fact in Manchester right now. I gathered she developed a thing for Norwegian footballer Erik Haaland during the World Cup. He currently plays for Manchester City, who had a home game against Coventry FC yesterday. (1 nil to City.) 

Well, I kept checking her Insta stories in the hope of a quick photo with her. I went to 2 different Federal Cafes, still woozy from the caraway and probably dehydration too – she’d posted being in one venue, and I went to the other – not far from where I’d left people at the Boob Walk anyway. When I arrived at each one, there was a humongous queue to get in, but I doubt that was because of Angela. It’s just a popular spot. Her next update was from The Ethiad, the Man City stadium. So I got a bus, then had a long walk. I thought this was going to be utterly futile. I was right. A further update showed she was already in, meeting the squad, slapping their hands as they went into the complex. Her last post was of the players going onto the pitch. 

I went home. 

Manchester Nightlife Meetup group met in Oast House Saturday night with a plan to check out the new Sticks’n’Sushi bar in Spinningfields. We met, but the new bar / restaurant was dead, so we tried Sexy Fish which was full. I’d have liked to stay on Spinningfields, but we moved onto Box bar, which I just don’t like, sorry. Too chavvy. Got roped into pool games that I’m dreadful at. Moved onto Blues Kitchen, of which I’ve also had my fill. I didn’t last long. 

On the way out a trans influencer called Jessica Such collared me for some video interview. I’m assuming that’ll be on Insta soon. You can guess the question. And the answer.